Introduction
Introduction to My Corpus
The Loundess
War refers to a trend in music production since the 80s where songs
are made as loud as possible, often at the expense of dynamic range,
sound quality and listerener fatique. The goal of the Loudness War is to
make a song stand out on the radio or in a CD-player, where louder songs
are more likely to catch the listener’s attention.
My expectation is that the relative loudness wil decline at the same
time that streaming services started to gain a lot of clients. Since all
the streaming services use normalization (every song is equally loud),
their isn’t any beneficial factor left for making a song sheer loud. I
suspect producers will focus again on quality and impact.
By looking at data from Spotify i will be searching for evidence of
the existence of the Loudness War and if the decline of the Loudness
corresponds with the fall of the CD Sales and the rise of steaming
services during the 00s and 10s. (See: Background -> Music
Sales)
At the same time i will look at the music of one of my favorite bands
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, since they have produced albums since the
80s, I would be interesting to see if they have followed the Loudness
War trend.
If you want some music to listen too during reading please go to
(Conclusion -> Source)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) are an American rock band formed in
Los Angeles, California, in 1983. RHCP’s style combines elements of
funk, punk, and rock music, RHCP’s music often deals with themes of
love, sexuality, and California culture The band has sold over 80
million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of
all time.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have released a total of 11 studio albums,
several live albums, compilations, and EPs. Here’s a brief overview of
their discography:
The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) - This is the band’s debut album,
featuring a more punk rock sound and an early lineup that included
founding members Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak, and Jack
Irons.
Freaky Styley (1985) - This album saw the band exploring more funk
and soul influences, with George Clinton producing.
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) - This album marked the return of
guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons to the band, and is
considered one of their most energetic and raw releases.
Mother’s Milk (1989) - This album marked a major breakthrough for the
band, with the hits “Higher Ground” and “Knock Me Down” gaining them
mainstream attention.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) - This album is considered a masterpiece
by many, featuring the hit singles “Give It Away,” “Under the Bridge,”
and “Suck My Kiss.” It remains one of the band’s most successful and
beloved releases.
One Hot Minute (1995) - This album marked the departure of guitarist
John Frusciante, and the arrival of new guitarist Dave Navarro. The
album saw the band experimenting with more psychedelic and heavy rock
sounds.
Californication (1999) - This album marked the return of John
Frusciante to the band, and saw them returning to a more melodic and
accessible sound. The title track and “Scar Tissue” became massive
hits.
By the Way (2002) - This album continued in the vein of
Californication, with a more polished and pop-oriented sound. Hits
included “By the Way” and “Can’t Stop.”
Stadium Arcadium (2006) - This double album is one of the band’s most
ambitious releases, featuring a diverse range of styles and sounds. It
won the band multiple Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album.
I’m with You (2011) - This album marked the departure of guitarist
John Frusciante, and the arrival of new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. The
album saw the band experimenting with more electronic and atmospheric
sounds.
The Getaway (2016) - This album marked the return of producer Danger
Mouse, and saw the band continuing to explore new sounds and styles. The
title track and “Dark Necessities” were popular singles.
Unlimited Love (2022) - The album has a little bit more indie
influeced. Black summer toped in Indie hitlist
Return of the Dream Canteen (2022) - Newest album
Conclusion
I think the results are clear enough to say that their indeed was a
Loundess War that took place since the 80s until the 00. Then at the
same time Streaming services started to take off, Loundess did really
decrease. This is prove that their is correlation between the rise of
streaming services and the decline of loudness. Which for us as
consumers of music is in my opinion a good thing.
However as I mentioned by the energy graph, The energy did not so
much decline since the 10s as the loudness did. This really begs the
question what kind of production methods music producers use to gain the
same amount of energy impact on listeners as they did before with sheer
loudness. This would be a really great follow up research.
So is the Loudness war really over?
Yes if we look at sheer loudness levels, however I think the war
moved to another domain. Mainly to music production skills for streaming
services. Since normalezation is the standard there, it leveled the
playing field on sheer loudness, but not on perceived loudness.
Discussion
While I stand for my conlclusion this reasearch is limited any in an
ideal world would not be affected by the following points:
One thing what really affect this research is the influence of
remasters. For example Smooth Criminial from Michael Jackson in the
playlist I used is an Remaster. Sadly more often than not the original
master isn’t available on Spotify. So the original data is not always
available for this research, this makes the research less of a
representation than I wished for.
Also the representation is severly limited by the amount of data it
covers, since I was not able to track all the music in the world i have
picked the All out Playlist from the 70-20s to make my case. It’s of
course imaginable that with much more data the results of this research
would have been different.